Cognition and Image Formation in Literature

The credibility of the traditional psychoanalytic method of inter- preting literature is lacking both within the field of literary and of psychoanalytic studies. In conjunction with a discussion of the untenable hypotheses and analogies that have formed the basis of traditional psychoanalytic involvement with literature, this work evaluates the psychoanalytic theory and conceptualizations that are relevant to the study of literature. Its premise is that the literary symbol functions in a reader's cognitive-affective responses to a text, which constitutes a psychological synthesis of text and reader identities.